The Coursera Store: Supporting Education for Everyone

The Coursera Store is Finally here!

Coursera’s mission is to empower people to learn without limits by connecting the world to a great education. It is with this in mind that we share some news with you!

It’s an exciting day for the Coursera community because we are proud to announce that you’ll finally have a chance to get your hands on some Coursera gear, and better yet, you’ll be able to help a fellow Courserian while you’re at it. Introducing the brand-new Coursera Store! The store is where you can go to get Coursera gear, like the much demanded Coursera T-Shirt, Mug, Water Bottle, along with 3 more items.

Please note that due to the small size of our store, shipping is currently available within the US only. As we get more inventory, we plan to make shipping available worldwide – thank you for your understanding.

Introducing The Education for Everyone Initiative

Along with the opening of Coursera Store, we are launching the Education for Everyone (E4E) Initiative, an effort to engage our community to work together and break down the financial barriers to learning without limits. When we launched Signature Track, our service that allows students to earn a Verified Certificate for select courses, we began offering Coursera Financial Aid to ensure that no student would be excluded due to financial constraints. To date we have provided financial aid to thousands of students from around the world who are motivated to learn.

Through the E4E Initiative, 100% of the profit from your Coursera Store purchase goes to our Coursera Financial Aid program. This will help to pay the fees for students wanting to join Signature Track but are unable to afford to do so. As part of the E4E initiative, every Coursera Store order will include a token of thanks in the form of a special E4E sticker to show that you’re support the principle that education should be a fundamental human right, be proud and display it!

Who benefits from Coursera Financial Aid?

We’ve heard from students all over the world whose lives have been changed by Coursera. Many have applied for Coursera Financial Aid in pursuit of a Verified Certificate, which has the potential to help them advance in their careers and reach their educational or personal goals.

Siddarth, a student from India signed up for Signature Track for his course, Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies from the University of Maryland. He shared his story of why Financial Aid was important to him:

“My annual income is $0 because I am a student. Also, I am joining college this fall and the expenses for college will be quite a burden for my parents. I don’t want to strain my parents already fiscally-tight pockets… This course will help me learn more about entrepreneurship. It will assist me in creating jobs when there are none available. I rely on this course to help me turn my innovation and my ideas into successful business ventures.”

We also heard from Mukhtar, a Courserian from Nigerian taking Sports and Society from Duke University, who hopes to use his Verified Certificate to help his community and reach his career goals:

“My parents are getting old and kind of struggling to make a living, so they can’t afford to spend money to help me with my education. I am getting ready to look for a job in Nigeria so that motivates me to look more into certification courses since I can’t afford to go for my masters degree… I am really looking into working with our national sports council in my country and as a volunteer in my community to help the upbringing talents. I hope my getting a certificate in this course can help me in that endeavor.”

Siddarth and Mukhtar’s motivations are powerful, and we’re happy to be able to provide free access to education to them and many others like them. As the Coursera community continues to grow, we hope to be able to sustain our Financial Aid program with the support for the Education for Everyone Initiative.